Big Train, The (1950s ca.)

it's good to see you I'm Alfred Pearlman I'm a railroad man and I'd like to tell you something about our Railroad and what we're doing on it hear that click of the Rails to a Railroader that's the same music as a hush in the theater to an actor before the foot lights come up the click of the Wheels on the rails gets into your blood people tend to take the railroad pretty much for granted we in the railroad business probably haven't told the story of the changing conditions in our industry the railroads have been so much a part of our American history and Landscape that most of us don't realize how much they have kept changing for the railroads have changed with the times and now they have entered what is perhaps the most dynamic period of our development that is why what this picture is about I hope you'll enjoy [Music] it [Music] [Applause] [Music] it had a job waiting for it from the [Music] beginning power on the Move looking for Wilderness to eat up it smokees signals said we're coming West with everything you need to clear a forest make a homestead build a town it said we're coming east to keep your cities fed your industries alive and growing a heavy load to carry carrying the country on its back from the 19th into the 20th century from the furrow of the rail sprouted our modern industrial [Music] world the idea of masses of goods for masses of people took [Music] shape this Skyline it's Signature One continuous moving assembly line and the rail itself part of that line the steel needing iron ore and power the power needing coal and oil every part of the line connected to every other part mile after mile of industrial [Music] power the grand assembly line of the American economy and the rail itself part of the line like Greenwich time the freight car load is a standard it registers the health of the economy the freight train packages Factory loads tonnages iron mines cattle ranges packages [Music] quaries forests wheat [Music] Fields more than 100,000 Freight cars loaded and put on the Move in the United States every day and tomorrow the load will be heavier to increase efficiency the railroad calls on modern science and research science and research key words in industrial [Music] [Applause] [Music] progress the central uses 2,000 diesel locomotiv each engine has 3,000 moving parts breakdown means time and money lost can't we spot trouble before it starts less time in the shop means more time on the road science and research hurrying up the repair [Music] job key instrument is the direct reading spectrometer in the research lab of the New York Central Railroad in Cleveland first burn a sample of the oil which minutes before was circulating in an engine burn it down to an ash what's in this ash minute particles of elements swept into the oil as it lubricated the moving parts of the locomotive submicroscopic bits of piston steel copper bearing crankshaft the ash is inserted in the spectrometer the spectrometer is the detective revealing wear and tear on these engine [Music] parts time for analysis 40 7 Seconds by chemical analysis 2 months by checking wear and tear figures on each locomotive against previous readings trouble is averted before it starts saving millions of dollars a [Music] year the danger point is spotted time presses wheat Steel meet tomorrow's Necessities can't wait operator connect me with power control in New York please power control this RL bar in the spectrometer lab and the research Department in Colwood yes we're issuing an mp32 on unit 4200 for immediate bearing inspection you cut the engine out in Buffalo okay thank you Mr Potter increase performance lower the cost more out of less a problem for scientists now our diesels use 20 million gallons of high-grade fuel per month cut the cost of a gallon by just 1 cent and you save more than $2 million a year puzzle for the technician how do you transform an inferior product into a superior one find the right working [Music] equation they created an additive which converted a sub standard fuel into a highgrade [Music] fuel more out of less more speed more power for the big [Applause] [Music] train in the Central's Atomic laboratory for authorized personnel only an atomic switch lamp is being tested self-powered it will burn continually for 12 years can the traditional rail shape be modified to support heavier loads at greater [Music] speeds experiment a dry lubricant for locomotive gears which could simplify engine maintenance from Road bed to Signal Tower the American railroad is being refashioned Harold you're going to take your cars at you're getting off electronic Freight yard the frontier yard of the New York Central at Buffalo one yard that took the place of eight and more like it being [Music] built as letters arriving in a central post office are rerooted for new destinations so arriving trains must be reassembled into new trains in Freight yards Frontier yard can handle 3,000 cars a day and set them moving on their way three times as fast as it used to take as it moves down an incline called the hump the freight car is taken over by automatic controls its weight and speed are instantaneously calculated on a computer regulating a system of retarders which slow down the cars they move on their assigned tracks to assembling trains at the exact speed necessary for smooth coupling new Railroad in the making early bird nickname for a fleet of New York centrals crack freight trains that speed each day from the Midwest to the east you're watching the loading of ny4 one of the early birds on the Chicago New York run masses of things for masses of people everyday things plywood canned goods housewares drugs paint news print Auto Parts living [Music] Standard Auto Parts House wears meat copper wire brass fittings even as they go aboard every shipment its description destination and car number is registered fed into teletype machines at the same instant the loading is being recorded in bureaus in Cleveland Detroit and New York [Music] throughout its length the electronic nervous system of the railroad is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] alert 1 p.m. Blue Island yard Chicago time to roll [Music] the early bird gets underway destination New [Applause] York [Music] 120 Freight cars behind its diesels payload 4,000 tons 8 million lb of freight on the Move moving against the industrial Skyline which 100 Years of train movement helped to make night across the Midwest moving Eastward w the train has work to do it got the job 100 years ago and we'll have it tomorrow carrying the load the train has a single statement to make coming through [Music] [Music] through [Music] rolling through an Indiana night into an Ohio morning carrying the [Music] load colinwood Ohio crew chains as trainmen have done since the first wood burner ran the old and new Crews exchange greetings news of families good weather and clear track some things do not change [Music] [Music] Harvest comes as it came when the steam engine ran on this track comes across Ohio over the old right of way moves the new train moving through the old unchanging forms of corn and grapes and wheat growing the right of way ahead made safe and [Applause] smooth John Henry with new muscles there's not a man alive can pull and drive spikes like this or raise up rails or pack the ballot or pull out old ties and put in new ones like that and smooth down the road bed so it's set for that train to roll through the early bird mov at 60 MPH shows up on a master control board on this panel all train movement on the next 200 M of road is registered remote controls here make two tracks do the work of four handle 85 trains a day which meet and pass in automatic safety here we see the early bird following a local Freight early bird moving East on track one ahead of it and moving East on the the same track the local Freight as the early bird catches up the dispatcher switches the local Freight to track [Music] two the local Freight moves [Music] over the dispatcher lines up track [Music] one and the early bird sweeps [Music] on throughout its length the electronic nervous system of the railroad pulsing let me have the Freight Service Bureau please Service Bureau this is Sutton of brinkman's can you tell me when I can expect a New York Central 64247 out of Chicago on the 23rd okay I got it hold on a moment please your car left the frontier yard at 1:15 p.m. this afternoon it's doing New York tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m. very well thank you [Music] goodbye coming through destination New [Music] York every every day it is taken for granted the morning will arrive on time delivering Sunrise food fuel mail and the standard of living and more of the same tomorrow every day it is taken for granted that what is needed will be on hand it is taken for granted that the train will do its job the country and the cities grow the train will help deliver the future as a has done from the [Music] beginning but that is only half the story i' like to tell you the other half myself but first a question how would you like to run a business if the government used your tax dollars to build one alongside you then made it taxfree and turned it over to competitor and helped him operate and maintain it that is the problem of the railroad now let me go back a little in railroad history in the 19th century the railroads had a virtual monopoly of Inland Transportation regulation of the railroads grew up with that Monopoly in mind they were necessary laws indeed they made sense half a century ago today these laws still control railroad operations but what happened to our Monopoly is it in the passenger transportation is it in hauling Freight well what happened to our Monopoly as all of us know it has disappeared but you never know it from the volumes of laws and regulations that still govern our railroad operation here is an airport a modern up toate airport who paid for it why like every airport the taxpayers did did the local government took tax money to build it or it floated tax exempt bonds to build it and it got the federal government to put up more tax money from all of us to help in its construction now here is a rail terminal not quite as up to dat who paid for that why the railroad did and it not only paid for it but pays taxes on top of it $3 million a year to be exact now that makes a difference airports bus terminals truck terminals Bridges tunnels ultramodern freeways government dredged waterways the rights of way of our competitors billions of dollars worth of profit property built and maintained by taxes yours and [Applause] ours the right of way of the New York Central 10,000 Mi of it our bridges our freight terminals our passenger terminals our research installations not only Built by us not only maintained by us but in addition we pay property taxes of $40 million annually taxes that go to support community activities like schools the fire department the police department the highway department quite a contrast to our competition isn't it and yet the railroads are the lowest true cost producers of mass transportation the ships in the St Lawrence Seaway the trucks on the highway are not truly producing transport Transportation as inexpensively as a train when you realize how many of their costs are paid for by the taxpayer which brings us back to our question how would you like to run a business if the government built one alongside you and made it tax-free and then turned it over to a competitor and helped him operate and maintain it that is the problem of the railroads now despite outdated policies which restrict us discriminate against us and would have put any other industry out of business the railroads have made progress and you've just seen how much we are doing to make even more progress but in a competitive free enterprise Society we cannot indefinitely run a business in competition with government financed government supported business what we have is a lopsided Transportation policy on Federal and State levels a policy which is slowly squeezing the life out of our railroads what do we ask well that's simple we ask for an upto-date Fair Transportation policy we ask that all forms of transportation pay their way as now only the railroads do or failing that we ask the same tax benefits and the same government support under which other forms of trans Transportation operate today we are not just discussing a 4% return versus a 6% or 8% return we're discussing the steady expansion and growth of American industry as a whole we're discussing your standard of living and comfort we're discussing your better standard of living and your greater Comfort tomorrow you can't have them without modern and more efficient railroads unless you know the fact and demand a modern Transportation policy which gives equal treatment to every form of transportation thank you